It's A Game, But Who's Keeping Score?

“What’s that saying?” Xabi said jokingly, “If looks could kill…”

“I’d be ten feet under,” I mumbled back. “I guess Fernando didn’t tell her that I was England as well. What a coincidence.”

“Hardly,” Pepe muttered under his breath. I stood next to him, so I knew fully well what he had said and knew that it was hardly a coincidence.

We headed back to the house, heading our separate ways for the night. Unfortunately, the house was a mess as we were getting the basement finished so Pepe and Xabi’s families could stay with us more often. Hopefully the construction would be done by Fernando’s birthday party, because both wives and children were making the trip up.

The next morning I was rudely interrupted by the constant banging of hammers and other construction tools. I groggily made my way to the kitchen to find Pepe and Xabi already sitting at the table. “You guys had a rough night too?” I asked sitting down at the table. Both men ignored me and continued eating their breakfast. I was confused, the construction wasn’t that loud. I waved my hands in front of their faces to get their attention; they both took out ear plugs.

“Sorry,” they both said.

I laughed, “How come I didn’t think of that?”

The next couple of days were chaotic, we tried our best to stay out of the house when the construction was going on, but we soon ran out of things to do. Thankfully, three days later the basement was finished and the house was quiet again, but only for a short while. I was lazily flipping through the channels on the TV, when I heard the front door fly open and several pairs of footsteps.

“Hola!” a beautifully accented voice shouted out. “Where is my handsome husband?”

Pepe seemed to barrel down the stairs to greet his wife Yolanda and his two daughters, Grecie and Alma. I couldn’t help but awe at their reunion; they had the picture perfect family. I sat in my seat, not wanting to interrupt, but the next thing I knew, I was being lifted up into a bone-crushing hug.

“Oh, Rebecca,” Yolanda squealed. “It’s been too long!”

I couldn’t help but smile and hug back, Yolanda had been one of the few wives that actually accepted me playing with their husbands and knew that I didn’t want to steal them. She had whisked me away from the team a few times in Vienna to go shopping.

“I know Yolanda,” I said with a huge grin, “And your daughters have gotten so big!”

“Yes, little Grecie is looking like her father every day. While Alma is taking more of my features,” Yolanda said, pulling her daughters forward to say hello. They were shy, but immediately took a liking to me.

“Xabi!” a shrill voice called from the doorway.

Xabi flew out of the kitchen to meet his wife Nagore, who was with their newborn baby boy Jontxu. The couple embraced and cooed over their son. I couldn’t help but hide behind Yolanda and hope that Nagore wouldn’t see me. She was one of the wives that was on Olalla’s “side.” Although Yolanda was friends with Olalla, she had taken a liking to me.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered to me. “I won’t let her say anything. At least when you’re around.”

I gave Yolanda a squeeze and decided to at least say hello to Nagore to be civil. “Hi Nagore,” I said quietly, taking a step towards the couple. “You’re son is adorable.”

Nagore sneered at me, but then replaced it with a surely fake smile. “Xabi, you didn’t tell me that Rebecca was living with you. That’s a pleasant surprise.”

I forced a smile onto my face and then excused myself from the group, letting the couples have their alone time. I fell back onto my bed and realized that I should probably get Fernando a present. After all, it was his birthday, I thought to myself. Without even realizing it, I had dialled Fernando’s number.

“Hola?” a female voice said.

My eyes grew wide and quickly ended the call. Olalla most definitely did not live in another house anymore, she had answered his phone. Before I could toss my phone against my wall in frustration, it vibrated, signalling a text.

Did you just call?
-FT

I quickly typed back,

Sorry if I was interrupting something.
I just wanted to know what you wanted for your birthday.
-R

Having you there is a present enough.
-FT

I groaned, Fernando was playing me hot and cold. I didn’t even bother answering his text; it had frustrated me too much. I just didn’t understand how he could say things like that to me, when he was supposed with Olalla, who was pregnant with his child.

I stayed in my room the rest of the night, Yolanda had thankfully brought dinner up to me and made plans with me to go out shopping the next day for an outfit for Fernando’s party. I was surprisingly excited for a girl that didn’t like to shop.

“Thank you for getting me out of the house,” I said to Yolanda, as I pulled out of the driveway. “I don’t know how much I could handle of Nagore boasting about her child.”

“No worries, I needed some alone time with you anyways. Plus, I need to help you get a super hot outfit to make Fernando jealous.”

I nearly slammed into the car in front of us. “I-I don’t need to make Fernando jealous!” I choked out.

“Oh, I know everything,” Yolanda said with an all knowing smile.

After searching almost every store in the mall, we finally decided on a simple green strapless dress, with silver heels, a bunch of red bracelets, a silver clutch and a grey cardigan for if it got cold. I was happy with my outfit, I just hoped that it accomplished what I wanted; to make Fernando jealous.

The day of the party came and to say that I was nervous was the understatement of the year. I couldn’t sit still at the breakfast table, which Grecie found very entertaining and crawled onto my lap, and eagerly clapped her hands together. I couldn’t resist her contagious smile, and clapped along with her. Yolanda laughed and said jokingly to Pepe that they had found their resident baby-sitter. Nagore simply scoffed at my childish behaviour and went back to tending to her son.

Several hours before the party, Yolanda pulled me away from playing dolls with Grecie, saying that I needed to get ready. I protested by saying that she needed time to get ready as well, which she simply countered by saying she had practiced getting ready in a short amount of time. Defeated, I went to my room and had a long shower, feeling simply refreshed afterwards. I slipped into my dress and started drying my hair; I left it down and braided my bangs to the side. I dusted on a light layer of make-up, jus t to accent my eyes and I was ready to go.

I stepped into my heels and quickly made my way downstairs, where the rest of the group waited. Xabi let out a low whistle, which earned a glare from Nagore. “You look stunning Bec,” he commented.

Yolanda sent a wink in my direction and slipped in arm around mine, “You look absolutely amazing. Fernando is going to be envious,” she whispered.

We piled into 2 cars; Xabi, Nagore and their son in one, while I went with Pepe and his family. There was no way I was going to be stuck in a car with Nagore, even if Fernando’s house was 15 minutes away. The house was already full by the time we got there, and even a few daring people ventured outside to the backyard where several portable heaters were set up. I told Pepe and Yolanda to head in, as I needed to get my present out of the truck. I struggled with the huge box and then felt a pair of hands lift it up. I turned around to see a grinning Steve.

“Steve!” I shouted, giving him a side hug as he still held onto my box.

“Rebecca! You look absolutely stunning,” he grinned back. Then, a cough came from behind him.

“Aren’t you forgetting something Stevie?” an angelic voice said as a beautiful blonde stepped forward, wrapping me into a tight hug. “I’m Alex, Steve’s wife. I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about you and I admire you for playing with these boys.”

I blushed, “Thank you,” I said quietly. “I’m glad I have two of the wives on my side.”

Alex looked at me funny, before realizing what I meant, “Don’t worry, Yolanda and me are on your side. We should do a lunch date sometime, the three of us.”

“I’d love that,” I grinned and then turned to Steve who was still standing there with my present. “Oh, sorry! If you could just take that inside, that would be awesome.”

I followed Steve and Alex in, only to be greeted by Fernando.

And Olalla.

“I’m so glad you could make it!” she squealed, instantly wrapping her arms around Alex. I stood there, awkwardly playing with my clutch.

“I thought I told you I didn’t need a present, just that you being here was enough,” a voice whispered beside me.

I looked up to Fernando who was looking better than ever. “I know, but I still wanted to get you something,” I said sheepishly.

Just as Fernando was going to say something, Olalla stepped in. “Rebecca, glad you could come as well,” she said, giving me an awkward hug.

“Me too, thank you for inviting me into your home,” I said, stressing on the ‘your,’ which made Fernando flinch.

“Can I open my present now?” he said, trying to ease the tension in the air that was clearly obvious.

“Of course,” I said, grinning.

Fernando took the package from Steve’s arms and walked into the living room. He set it down and began tearing at the wrapping paper, only to come to another layer of packing paper. Olalla sat on his right hand side, clearly marking her ‘territory.’ Fernando eagerly pulled away the brown paper and revealed a large picture frame containing a picture of himself. It was from the Euro Cup, where he was in mid-air after chipping the ball over the German goalie in the final game, where his goal proved to be the game winning.

“I-I love it,” Fernando finally said, after what seemed like an hour of staring at it. “Thank you so much estrella pequeña,” he mumbled, wrapping me into a hug.

I froze at the mention of being called “little star,” he hadn’t called me that since Vienna and I could see the distress in Olalla’s eyes. She knew that there was something between me and Fernando, something that couldn’t be ignored.

“If you could follow me into the kitchen, I’ll set you up with some food,” Olalla said, drawing the attention away from Fernando and me, to her. I blushed as Fernando pulled away, pecking me innocently on the cheek. I stayed back and looked more at the picture, the concentration on Fernando’s face was memorizing. If only I had been there to actually see it.

As I made my way to the kitchen, I could see the men already leaving which left me in the kitchen with the women. Lovely. I rounded the corner, only to hear Olalla gossiping about me.

“And what was with that picture? She wasn’t even there for the game; she abandoned the team so I don’t know why Fernando appreciated it so much. I’ll just have to hide it away somewhere.”

The other women agreed and then someone, who sounded like Nagore, asked, “So tell us more about the baby? When did it happen?”

“Actually,” Olalla said, barely audible. “It’s not his.”